I think it's gorgeous for space exploration. It'll get repetitive after awhile, space isn't exactly teeming with well placed set pieces, but I remember nothing more strongly from the game than setting up gorgeous scenic views with various stars and astroid fields and aligned planets. So ya, space exploration it does well. It also models the stars we know about accurately if I'm remember correctly, like you can go find earth and sol which is fun.

FTL travel is some form of real-time travel, yes. You can only jump so far and only so fast based on your ship, so traveling across the universe feels like a real trek. If all you wanted to do was get from place A to really far away place B, you could do that and have a good time I think - depending on how wonderous you find the natural world.